Three rain-outs, but still plenty of action yesterday.
Dodgers 12, Cubs 2: Six runs in the top of the third pretty much spelled the end of this one, with Chad Billingsley scattering 10 baserunners over 6.1 IP. Kenley Jensen K’ed 4 of the 5 batters he faced from the LA pen, taking his 21011 strike-out rate (14.8 K/9) above his 2010 rate (13.7 K/9). Every Dodgers batter with an at bat – including the pitcher and three pinch-hitters – had a base-knock. On the Chicago side, their pitchers had more walks (10 – including 6 from Jeff Stevens in only 3.1 IP) than batters had hits (8).
Tigers 9, White Sox 3: Chicago out-homered Detroit 3 (two from Carlos Quentin and one from Paul Konekro) to 1 (Ryan Raburn), but that wasn’t near enough. Other than the longballs, Justin Verlander (7 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 0 BB, 8 K) was on his game while the Tigers hung 6 runs on 8 hits on Mark Buerhle. Adam Dunn isn’t having the best of starts in his now AL home, with only 2 home runs an a strike-out rate dangerously close to half his at bats (44.9% K rate) after going 0-4 with three K’s in this one.
Blue Jays 6, Rays 4: One run in the bottom of the 9th and two more in the bottom of the 11th moves Toronto (9-10) past Tampa Bay in the standings (9-11). Sam Fuld continued growing his legend (3-5 with a triple and two stolen bases), but so did Jose Bautista – and the latter’s day was better, as he was a single short of the cycle but added two walks instead. Though they’re not leading the majors in homers again this year, there’s still some crazy home run stuff going on north of the border; John McDonald (19 career home runs in 2057 PA coming into the game) hit the walk-off blast for the Jays.
Marlins 4, Rockies 1: A walk, a passed ball, and an error got the Rockies a run in the top of the first inning. A walk in the 3rd was erased on a double play; another in the 7th wasn’t. Their first hit didn’t come until the top of the 9th though (also erased on a double play, by the way) as Anibal Sanchez came within three outs of a no-hitter. Complete game one-hitter with 9 K’s is still pretty good. Four early runs for Florida, including homers by Chris Coghlan and Gaby Sanchez made sure that if Anibal was able to go the distance he wouldn’t put together the rare no-no/loss combo.
Mets 4, Diamondbacks 1: Big Pelf pitched well (7 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 4 K), lowering his season ERA all the way to 7.23 in picking up his first win. Ike Davis moved into a three-way tie with Carlos Beltran and David Wright for the team lead in homers (3). The Mets got Jason Bay back for this game after he missed the beginning of the season, but had to place Angel Pagan on the DL – not a good trade-off for the New York defense (though it’ll be Jason Pridie taking Pagan’s place in center).
Rangers 11, Royals 6: I don’t think the Rangers coming out of this game with 12 wins would have surprised anyone, but the Royals doing so probably would have (before the season, that is). Derek Holland won the battle of lefties giving up 5 ER over Jeff Francis, as the former lasted seven ad K’ed 9. Ian Kinsler, Adrian Beltra, Mike Napoli, David Murphy, and Mitch Moreland all homered for Texas.
Brewers 14, Astros 7: Yovani Gallardo gave up 4 runs on 8 hits in 6 IP, despite walking only one and striking out 7, but his offense picked him up. Carlos Gomez and new Face of the Franchise Ryan Braun both homered; as did Gallardo himself, who now has 9 in his career. Pro-rate his rate out to a 600 PA season, and Gallardo would be a 27 home run hitter. Nice little bonus to have out of the nine-hole in the NL.
Cardinals 4, Reds 2: And just like that, St. Louis is now in first place in the NL Central. Tony La Russa pulled a fast one on Dusty Baker, scheduling Miguel Batista to start the game when the weather report didn’t look good, so he could actually go with Kyle McClellan after a long delay. The Reds had Edinson Volquez starting, but he didn’t throw a pitch (other than pre-game warm-ups), and the Card’s got to face Matt Maloney instead (who gave up 3 runs on 8 hits in only 2 IP).
Red Sox 4, Angels 3: LA made a comeback late off the Sox pen, but Jon Papelbon shut the door in the 9th for Boston after Jon Lester (6 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K) outdueled Dan Haren. Some people were worried about Lester after he got knocked around by Texas on Opening Day, but he’s 2-1 with a 2.59 ERA now. This was the first loss by the Angels’ dynamic duo; Haren and Jered Weaver fall to a combined 9-1. Bobby Abreu scored from second on a wild pitch for LA, which you don’t see every day.
Philles 2, Padres 0: Cole Hamels (8 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 8 K) and a Ryan Howard two-run triple(!) did the job for the Phillies. Ryan Madsen, one of those really good relievers that sometimes gets hung with the “can’t close” tag, picked up the save. Hamels himself actually had 2 of Philadelphia’s 6 hits, though he got picked off a couple batters before Howard cleared the bases.
Mariners 4, A’s 0: Rookie Michael Pineda continued rolling (6 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K), and is now 3-1 with a 1.78 ERA on the season. His offense was able to scratch out 4 runs for him, on 7 hits and 7 walks (4 in 4.1 IP by Oakland starter Tyson Ross, who didn’t even K a batter). The A’s haven’t scored yet in the first two games of this four-game set.
Braves 4, Giants 1: Nate McLouth started a third-inning rally with a walk (batting out of the eigth spot in the line-up), and scored on a hit by Jason Heyward (now in the two-hole). Then Heyward scored on a Chipper Jones double. Just like Fredi drew it up, I’m sure. That was enough for Tommy Hanson (7 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 7 K), with an assist from the Venters-Kimbrel lock-down in the last couple innings.
